It’s kind of a dreary day in Holland, Michigan, but I don’t think that’s why I have the blahs. I met with my colleagues, Nick Palmer and Rhonda Edgington, for some food and chat. I managed to talk less than usual. I like Nick and Rhonda a great deal. I don’t think our conversation gave me the blahs. But I did feel more disconnected than usual.
I went to the library and dropped off some books. I finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s posthumous collection of poetry, So Far So Good.
This is a poem in it I had marked because I liked it.
To the Rain
Mother rain, manifold, measureless,
falling on fallow, on field and forest,
on house-roof, low hovel, high tower,
downwelling waters all-washing, wider
than cities, softer than sisterhood, vaster
than countrysides, calming, recalling:
return to us, teaching our troubled
souls in your ceaseless descent
to fall, to be fellow, to feel to the root,
to sink in, to heal, to sweeten the sea.
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It sort of fits my mood.
I have a funeral to play tomorrow. That seems to make the weekend longer. I spent a lot of time with Bartok on the piano yesterday. I was playing his music when I was an untrained musician. His music was enormously influential on me. I love his Music for Children.
I played all the way through Vol. I yesterday. Volume one is settings of Hungarian folk songs, two is Slovakian. I don’t seem to have a copy of two in the house.
I also love his Mikrokosmos. Again, very influential on me. It feels almost nostalgic to play through his music. It certainly helps me keep in touch with my aesthetic.
